Steve Hadaway has the brain scan pictures to prove it: Boys can't help themselves from zoning out during a classroom lecture; they're just built that way.

The pictures depict a girl's brain showing more activity during rest and a boy's brain shows less activity.

"Boys go here several times a day," said Hadaway, a math teacher at the all-boys Riverside Military Academy, pointing to the boy's brain scan.

"Traditional education says 'Sit down, pay attention and do your work,' " said Hadaway. "And that's what turns boys off to school."

Hadaway is not the only one recognizing that dividing up boys and girls might have strong academic benefits in school.

In addressing changes to the Title IX landmark anti-discrimination law last month, the U.S. Department of Education cleared the way for local school districts to create same-sex classes on a voluntary basis only for subjects, such as math, a grade level or even an entire school.

The changes take effect Friday.

Hall County and Gainesville school systems haven't taken steps to separating the genders to any real extent, even though some school administrators have said they are open to the idea.

But two local private schools have made separate-sex education part of their tradition: Riverside and the all-girls Brenau Academy.

"We get inquiries all the time from girls," said Kate Maine, spokeswoman for Riverside. "... It's part of our mission to be an all-boys school and that's something the board of trustees is committed to."

Many educators are convinced that single-gender education is the way to go.

"Girls are not distracted by boys (in those settings). They don't have to worry about what they look like (in class). They are accepted for who they are," said Deb Kroll, who teaches history, government and economics at Brenau Academy.

Kroll, who taught for three years at a private co-educational school in Indiana before coming to Brenau 11 years ago, said she wouldn't speak to whether public schools should embark on setting up single-sex classes.

However, "there's value to looking at segregation by gender," she added. "Math and science would be the areas to do it in. Girls often think they can't excel (academically). They are particularly reluctant to speak out in math and science."

Hadaway said he also believes that public schools and school districts should do what they believe is best for their students, but if they don't give single-gender education a thought, "they're cheating themselves."

He has become a certified trainer with the Gurian Institute in Colorado Springs, Colo. The organization focuses on providing information on how boys and girls learn differently and how women and men work and lead differently.

Hadaway said he was trained on "how to go to other schools and show them advantages of single-gender training and how they can incorporate that in the educational process."

Riverside tries to keep school days hopping for its students with more classes and shorter class times than found in public schools. For the most part, boys and "block schedules," or four 90-minute classes per day, aren't compatible.

"Our goal is to have three hands-on activities during each class period," Maine said.

Hadaway said he has "students stand and walk around and it's not just movement for movement sake. It's movement for the sake of getting up and learning about something."

When they're still, though, boys aren't always like a knot on a log. If algebraic equations are taught in a way that perks them up, they'll be motivated to learn more and succeed, Hadaway.

Brian Baize, 18, a senior, said he has noticed a difference academically since arriving at Riverside three years ago from a co-ed public school in Fairfax, Va.

"I noticed I was getting a lot more done," he said.

Lynn Strehle has seen both sides of the fence. She taught math for a year at Brenau Academy and is in her second year teaching math at Riverside.

She said that girls at Brenau were perhaps more interested in literature or English than her math lessons, but "I didn't have to pull answers out of them."

Katherine Hunter, 15, a sophomore at Brenau, favors single-gender education. She declares, "I would not focus if boys were here. This (situation) is much better for me. I'm studying and I'm focusing."

For 17-year-old Katlyn Thomas, a Brenau senior who also has attended public schools, boys weren't the issue in high school.

"There is so much drama" over issues that have little to do with academics, she said. "There are much more interesting things to listen to (in public school) than geometry or government."

"And you're a statistic in public school," she said, referring to the push in public education for higher test scores.

While girls were ready to shoot up their hands in class at Brenau, Strehle said she has found a different response at Riverside.

"Boys need more action in class. I can lose their attention in five minutes if I'm not careful," Strehle said.

Same-sex education does have its critics.

The National Organization for Women says it creates the risk of breeding second-class citizens.

And the American Association of University Women has said it would "throw out the most basic legal standards prohibiting sex discrimination in education."

Another concern is that single-gender education doesn't reflect the "real world," where men and women interact at work and in other settings.

But Frank Booth, headmaster at Brenau Academy, doesn't buy it.

"Look at any football team preparing all week for the weekend game. The linemen are together practicing blocking and tackling, and the kickers are elsewhere kicking. Quarterbacks are in a separate group to work on passes, while the special teams work on kick-off coverage.

"Then, they enter the real world for the game."

Life is similar, requiring preparation that "calls for similar isolated, separate practicing," Booth said.

"Girls and boys do not always learn the same way. Gender difference can cause teenagers in the classroom discomfort, insecurity and distraction."

Further, as he and Riverside's leader, Superintendent Col. Guy Gardner, attest, it's not as if students at both schools never see someone of the opposite sex.

In fact, Riverside teams up with Brenau, as well as Atlanta Girls' School, on several social and athletic events per year. Riverside's cheerleaders, for example, are Brenau students.

Drama performances at Riverside often feature girls from Brenau, as well as other area public high schools, Gardner said.

Lack of the opposite sex during the regular school day isn't something that goes unnoticed, however.

Austyn Doty, 12, arrived this year at Riverside as a sixth-grader from the private, co-ed Lakeview Academy.

"I've noticed my grades have been improving and there is always something fun going on in class," he said. "The teachers are nice and the staff is nice."

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